Britain to EU: Don’t mention the bankers

The U.K. wants to postpone a scheduled June 23 European Union summit discussion on banking and financial issues because it falls on the same day as Britain’s EU referendum, according to participants in a planning meeting of the bloc’s ambassadors.

Ivan Rogers, the U.K.’s permanent representative to the EU, told his counterparts from the other 27 member countries at a meeting in Brussels last week that he was concerned about the focus on difficult economic issues coinciding with the British vote, diplomats in the meeting said.

Several topics on the agenda for the June summit, such as the economic monetary union (EMU), structural reforms to the banking union and the European Deposit Insurance Scheme, are sensitive issues for London’s economic hub.

Despite the British request, diplomats said it would be difficult to put off agenda items that haven’t been discussed by EU leaders in several months as they have been preoccupied by migration and by the Brexit issue itself. The deposit insurance scheme has been a priority for the Dutch presidency.

“It would be hard to accept,” said‎ the Czech Republic’s secretary of state for EU affairs, Tomas Prouza. “We have already moved the economic discussion from March to June and it would be hard not to have a substantial economy-related discussion at [an EU summit] for more than half a year.”

Prouza said there’s been no decision on putting the meeting off, and ambassadors will revisit the request later. The decision will also depend on what progress EU countries make on the issues between now and June.

Another EU diplomat said: “At this stage, it is foreseen in June as well as a discussion on deepening EMU.”

A summit of EU leaders this Thursday and Friday will include a brief discussion economic issues but the meeting will be focused mainly on migration.

British diplomats worry that embarking on a debate about tighter EU regulations in the financial industry could turn the tide against the EU before Brits go to the polls. There’s concern that just participating in preparatory work for the June summit could encourage the Leave campaign to highlight the unpopular economic policies.

The reforms could be spun as another way the EU is tightening regulations on London’s financial district.But the economic issues are some of the biggest priorities for eurozone members.

“The government in London is spending their life worrying about what could happen in Brussels and how to avoid all of these things,” a diplomatic source said.

The Commission has already put various other initiatives on hold until after the referendum, including a review of the EU’s seven-year budget, so as not to disrupt the political situation in the U.K.

A spokesperson for the British government said, “We don’t comment on leaks.”